Mechanical stoker.



Patented Feb. I2, I90I. II. W. KINGAID.

MECHANICAL STIKEII. (Application filed Jan. 8, 1900.)

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J. W. KINCMD.

MECHANICAL STOKEIR.

(Application led J an. 8, 1900,) (No Windel.) 3 Shaets-Sheat 2.

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J. W. KINCAID.

MECHANICAL STUKER.

(Application led Jan. 8, 1900.)

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(No Model.)

m u f f l m 1 .'lOlliN lW. lUNi'hfiilD, OF COVINGTON, KENTUCKY, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-THTRD 'lO tlllrllrllllilh A. KINOATD, OF COVINGTON, VIRGlNIA.

MECHANICAL S'l'OiiElFi.

SPEEMFLATUM forming part of Letters Patent No. 668,130, dated February 12, 1901.

pplication filed January 8,1900. Serial No. 691. (No model.)

To (f77. wh/mn, it mio/ 1j concern,.-

l'le it known that l, JOHN W. KINCAID, a ii izen ol the Unit ed States, and a resident oi' Covington, in the county of Kenton and State oi Kentucky, hare invented certain new and ueei'ul lmprovementn in lieehanit-.al Stokers, oi whifrh the following is a lapeciiication.

.lily invention relates to improvements in mechaniral Moliere. its object ie a mechanio iwal Stoker for leedingfuel into furnaces, es-

peii'iallgv thon@ oi' loeoniotiJe-engines, over the graiehare, in whieh the fuel is fed from a hopper io the lire in tpiantiliieand ata rate which are readily ehanged as desired and is t5 distributed evenly over the lire by a reciprocating plunger which is operated by an engine whose piston does not strike the heads ot' itev eylindi-r, in which the furnace Walls and linen are protected from the inruehing of 2o the outeide air, in which the upper part of the hopper can he awung hack readily when it is desired to polie the lire, and in which the whole machine can he detached from the turnace and moved out of the way to avoid delay in eaee ot annulent. rlhis object is attained by the means :lerici-ined in the annexed speci'- iication and illustrated in the accompanying drawingu, in whichlFigui-e l ia a lon.ritudinal central Vertical go sectional vier-.f oi' a mechanical Stoker einhodying my in yention, taken upon line of Fig. 2, the plunger being-r shown in its for- 7Ward poeition. Fig. 2 is a sectional plan View of the saine, taken upon irregular line m03, Fig. 1, the hood Shown extending from the hopper to the furnace-door over the swinging door in 1 heing removed to expose the Swinging door and the apron attached to the plunger. Fig. 3 ie a Vertical transverse seeio' tional View taken upon f1] y of Fig. 1. Fig. il: in a sectional detail View taken upon irregular line t of Fig. 1, showing the duplex engine for operating the eonveyers and the valve- Stein ior Controlling the admission to and the .i5 eahauet oi" Steam from each of its cylinders and the manner of coupling the Valve-stein to the pistonuod oi' the cylindere. Fig. 5 is a detail eide elevation of the duplex engine, showing the manner of attaching it 'to the 5o rear end of the lower part of the hopper. Fig. 6 is a detail tranereree Sectional view of the Valvestein, taken upon line 6 6 of Fig. 4:, upon aeoinewhat enlarged scale, Showing the ports shown in the rusten-valve in dotted lines, Fig. ,for admitting Steam to tho ends of the cylin- 5r; ders. Fig. 7 is a liorizontal sectional View taken upon line 7 '7 of Fig S, part oi' the plunger trough or channel being broken ont and the ende brought,l together to econolnize space. Fig. S is a detail view, upon an en- "1o larged Scale, of the valve for controlling the admission and the exhaust of steam to and from the cylinder oil i he main engine-narnely, the engine that aetuates the plunger-the valve-stem being shown in section. Fig. fl is a sectional View ot' the valve, taken upon line 9 Sl of Fig. 1. Fig. l() is a detail view ol the valve-neat, taken also upon line 9 il ot' Fig. 1. Fig. 11 is a central sectional View oi' the casting that forms the head ot' the rear end 7o ol the inain cylinder and the valve-Seat and case oi the valve which controls the admission and exhaust of :steam to and from it, showing the channels leading to the admission and exhaust ports. Fig. 12 is a detail View, 75 upon a somewhat reduced scale, similar to Fig. 1, of a modification, parte of the cylinder of the main engine and the trough of the plunger being broken out and the ends brought together to economize `epace.

Referring to the parts, the hopper A. consiste oi a lower part d, which consiste ol' two Semicylindrical channels, in each of which is a spiral conveyer, whose shaft a/ and d2, respectively, is journaled in its front and rear ends d3 and a4, and an upper part o5, which reste upon the lower part CL2 and is hinged to it upon one side by hinges (t6, so that it may loe swung hack for convenience in stirring the tire through door d, attached to the furnace D. 9o The hopper rests upon cylinder C oi' the main engine and trough l) of the reciprocating plunger B and has at its forward end lugs a7 and d8, upon its Sides to tit under the lugs h and b2 upon the sides of the trough l), as shown 95 in dotted lines, Fie". 1. Journaled in lugs a7 and u8 is a door h3 to swing down into the trough ZJ when the plunger is retracted. Secured to the forward end ot' the hopper and resting1 upon trough l), near the furnace-door Ioo D, is a hood t9 for excluding the air from the furnace. Door b3 is raised by a cam uw upon the end of con Voyer-shaft a when the plunger is advanced. The twin spiral oonveyers keep feeding the fuel to the forward end of the hopper, whence it passes through an opening a in its bottom to rest upon an apron b4, Which is attached to the plunger B and reciprocates in ways h5 between the hopper and the cylinder C of the main engine, whose pistonrod C is connected to the plunger, until the plunger is retracted, when it drops into the trough or channel b ofthe plunger, to be carried forward through the furnace-door D by the plunger on its next stroke, The trough has a small opening 137 in its bottom near the cylinder C, through which the dust which may accumulate between the plunger and the cylinder is discharged.

The rear head c of the cylinder C is formed integral with the valve-seat c and the cylindrical valve-case c2 of the valve E, which is formed integral with its stem e, which passes through the cap c of the valve-chamber, and has secured upon its end a cog-wheel e2, which meshes with a cog-wheel C112 upon the end of conveyer-shaft a. Cap e1 has an annular bushing e4 extending into the valve-chamber. Upon the valve-stem is a loose disk or piston e5, which bears against the inner walls of the bushing and is held in place on the stem between a rigid and a loose collar e and e7. Steam enters the valve-chamber from steampipe F through opening c2 in the valve-case between disk e5 and the valve, making it a balanced valve.

Valve E has four port-openinge e2, e9, 610, and 611 upon a common circumference and equidistant from each other and gradually increasing in` size from the smallest e2 to the largest 611. Into the under side of the valve are cut grooves @12 and e13 upon the diameters connecting ports e2 and @10 and e9 and @11, respectively, but terminating upon a circle within that upon which the ports lie. Valve-seat c has two admission-ports c4 and c5 to register with the port-openings in the valve, two exhaust-ports c6 and c7 to register with the grooves in. the under side of the valve, and a central exhaust-port cs. Admission-port c5 is connected byachannel c9 to the rear end of the cylinder to admit steam for advancing the plunger. Steam from admission port c4 is conveyed to the forward end of cylinder C by a pipe c10 for retracting the plunger.

The purpose of making the ports e8 to @11 vary in sizeis to vary the amount of steam admitted to the cylinder for advancing the plunger each time, so that the forward strokes of the plunger will Vary in rapidity from one uthat would deposit the fuel in front of the door to one that would throw it to the back of the furnace. Pipe 010 is made of an interior diameter equal to that of the smallest port e8 in order that the return stroke of the plunger may not vary in speed.

Exhaust-ports c6 and c7 are connected by channels 011 and c12in the cylinder-head c with channels 013 and 011 upon the side of the cylinder C, channel 013 entering the cylinder at a distance from the front head of the cylinder equal to or slightly less lthan the distance between the two pistons C15 and c1, which are secured upon the piston-rod C within cylinder C. The object of this arrangement is that on the forward stroke of the piston the steam left in the cylinder after piston C15 has reached the exhaust-port C13 acts as a cushion between the piston and the front end of the cylinder and that on the return stroke the steam leftin the cylinder after pistou c16 has passed exhaust-port c14 acts as a cushion between it and rear head c of the cylinder. A channel c17in the head c conveys the exhaust-s1 eam of the front and the rear of cylinder C from the central exhaust cgof the valve-seat through channels 018 and b, which are underneath cylinder C and the plunger-trough l), against acone-shaped detiector d', attached to the furnace-door centrally in front of the forward end of the trough to spread the coal. The purpose of this arrangement is both to keep the deflector swept clean of coal and to aid in combustion of the blue flames on top of the re.

The twin spiral conveyers a' and a2 are rotated toward each other by the duplex engine G, which consists of two cylinders Q and Q', within which are pistons Q2 and Q2, respectively, connected by a piston-rod Q4, to reciprocate which steam is admitted alternately to the opposite ends of the cylinders from chambers Q5 and Q6 beneath cylinders Q and Q', respectively, through ports Q7, Q8, Q9, and Q10, Fig. et, the opening and closing of which are controlled by a common valve-stem Q11, which has two piston-valves Q12 and Q12, and Q14 and Q15 within the chambers Q5 and Q6, respectively. Steam is admit-ted to the chambers Q5 and Q11 between piston-valves Q12 and Q12 and Q14 and Q15, respectively, from the steamchamber Q16, which is in communication with steam-pipe F through ports Q17 and Q18 and Q19 and Q20, (shown in dotted lines in Fig. 4,) in which position ports Q11and Q19 are closed, steam is being admitted to the right-hand ends of the cylinders through channels Q21, cut in the piston-valve (shown in Fig. 6 and in dotted lines, Fig. 4,) and steam from the left-hand ends is exhausting through ports Q22 and Q23 into the exhaust-chamber Q24, whence it is conveyed through exhaust-pipe Q25 into the exhaust-channel c18. Cylinders Q and Q', chambers Q5 and Q6 beneath them, steam-chamber Q16, and exhaust-chamber Q24 are formed integral in a casting, a detail side View of which is shown in Fig. 5, which rests upon the rear end of the lower part a2 of the hopper and has a downwardlyprojecting flange Q26, which is secured to the hopper by bolts or rivets Q27. Valve-stem Q11 is actuated by piston-rod Q4, which has au arm Q2S secured to it and projecting down to straddle stem Q11, upon which are collars Q29 and Q30, which are struck by arm Q28 near the limits of its stroke in either direction. Pivoted to arm Q2s at one end and to the end of the hopper a2 at the other is a vertical lever H, centrally IOO IIO

pivoted to which is a horizontal arm h. Upon pivots 7L and h2 at the opposite ends of arm h are links h3 and h", which also are rotatably secured to conveyer-shafts a and CL2 and pawls h5 and h6 to engage cog-wheels com and am. Now when piston-rod g'l moves toward the right, Fig. 3, pawl h5 engages cog-wheel am and rotates spiral conveyer d. to the right, and when rod g4 moves toward the left pawl 7i engages cog-wheel c and rotates couveyer C42 to the left.

In operation when steam from the boiler has been turned on in pipe F it enters both engine G and valve-case c2 of valve E and starts up duplex engine G, the reciprocation of whose piston g is conveyed by rod H alternately to spiral conveyers a CL2, which keep carrying the fuel in hopper A toward its end that is toward the furnace, where its rests on apron o* until the apron is retracted by the plunger. The rotation of shaft a rotates valve E to admit steam alternately to the ends of cylinder C to reciprocate piston-rod C and plunger' B. When the plunger is retracted, the coal from opening d falls into the trough in front of it.. rllhe speeds with which the con veyers carry the coal to the forward end of the hopper to fall in front of the plunger through opening d and the rapidity with which the plunger carries it forward to the furnace are thus interdependent, since the fasi-er the conveyer-shaft rotates the more coal is carried forward and, since the rotation of the eonveyer-shaft determines the rotation of valve E, the greater the number of strokes of the plungerin a given time. (Jam 0.10 upon the end of shafta opens door b3, as shown in Fig. l, when the plunger advances to throw the fuel upon the `tire.

In the modiiication shown in Fig. l2 is a chaudiere-19, within which is a piston-head 020, connected to a piston-rod 021, which projects horizontally forward through the front head of the chamber c1, beneath trough b, and is pivoed at its forward end to a crank c22,which is connected to the dei'lector D', which is pivoied upon a pivot (Z2 upon the furnace-door. About piston-rod cm, within chamber c19 and bearing against piston-head C20, is a coiled spring c2. A steam-pipe Mis tapped through head c of the cylinder C into channel o9 to convey steam thence beneath cylinder C into chamber C19, against piston-head 020. W'hen a strong pressure of steam enters channel c, it compresses spring C23, carries piston-rod c21 forward, and lowers detlector D', and the stronger the pressure the more is the deflector lowered, so that the fuel is not spread so much upon the strokes which are intended to carry the fuel near the rear of the furnace. The purpose of this is obvious in view of the fact that the farther the fuel is thrown the more it spreads of itself.

iNhile I have described my stoker as run by steam, it is obvious that in place of steam other compressed fluids might be substituted for it.

That I claim is- 1. In a mechanical stoker the combination of a main engine, a trough or channel leading from the cylinder of the main engine into a furnace above the grate-bars, a plunger reciprocated in the trough or channel by the main engine, an apron connected to the plunger, a hopper on the trough and the cylinder of the main engine leaving ways between it and them in which the apron slides, twin spiral conveyers journaled in the ends of the hopper for feeding' fuel to the forward end thereof, a hole in the bottom of the hopper near the forward end ihrough which the fuel passes into the trough when the plunger and apron are retracted, and an engine for rotating the conveyers, substantially as shown and described.

2. In a mechanical stoker the combination of a plunger reciprocating in a channel or trough, the channel leading into a furnace above the grate-bars, a hopper above the channel from which fuel is fed in front of the plunger when retracted, an engine for reciprocating the plunger and a revolving valve for controlling the admission of steam to the front and rear ends of the cylinder of the main engine for reciprocating` the plunger whose admission-ports vary in size from a minimum to a maximum, whereby the plunger is advanced with a correspondingly-varying speed for Jthrowing fuel to different parts of the furnace, substantially as shown.

3. In an engine for reciprocating a plunger the combination of a rot-ating valve for controlling the admission and exhaust of steam to and from the end of the cylinder of the engine having adinission-ports varying in size from a minimum to a maximum upon the circumference of a circle., and channels cutin its under side upon the radii connecting the admission-ports and within their circle leading into an exhaust-port in the valve-seat, a valve-seat having two admission-ports to register with the admission-ports in the valve, two exhaust-ports upon the smaller circle of theexhaust-channel to register with the channels in the under side of the valve and a central exhaust-port, substantially as shown and described.

4. In an engine for reciprocating a plunger the combination of a cylinder, a piston reciprocating in the cylinder for actuating the plunger, the rear head of the cylinder the valve-seat and the valve-case formed integral, and a revolving valve in the case for controlling the admission and exhaust of steam to and from the cylinder to reciprocate the piston, substantially as shown and described.

5. In an engine for reciprocating a plunger the combination of a cylinder two pistons at a short distance apart upon a piston-rod, the piston-rod for actuating the plunger, ports for admitting steam into the ends of the cylinder and "exhaust-ports in the cylinder at a distance from each end equal to or less than the distance between the pistons whereby a IOO IIO

IIS

small amount of steam is left in the cylinder after exhaust to act as a cushion between the piston and the head of cylinder, substantially as shown and described.

6. In a mechanical stoker the combination of a main engine for reciprocatinga plunger, the plunger, a channel or trough in which the plunger reciprocates leading into a furnace, a hopper from the forward end of which fuel -drops in frontof the plunger when retracted,

two spiral conveyers situated in the bottom of the hopper for feeding the fuel to the forward end thereof whose shafts are journaled in the hopper ends, a duplex engine having two cylinders Within each of which is a piston, a rod connecting the pistons, means for admitting steam to the cylinder to reciprocate the rod, a lever coupled to the rod at one end and pivoted to the hopper at the other, an arm pivoted to the lever and terminating in pawls saidv pawls to engage ratchet or cog Wheels upon the ends of the conveyershafts for revolving` the shafts and said cogwheels,substantially as shown and described.

7. In a duplex engine the combination of two cylinders, a piston within each of the cylinders, a rod connecting the pistons, a valvechamber adjacent to each of the cylinders, piston-valves for controlling the admission and exhaust of steam to and from the cylinders within each of said chambers, a common valve-stem connecting the piston-valves and a rod coupling the piston-rod and the valvestem for reciprocating the stem to open and close the admission and exhaust ports of the cylinders, substantially as shown and described.

8. In a mechanical stoker the combination of a main engine whose piston-rod is connected to a plunger for reciprocating it, a channel or trough in which the plunger reciprocates leading from the cylinder of the main engine,

into a furnace, a hopper above the cylinder 'and the trough leaving ways between it and them having an opening in the bottom near its forward end through which fuel passes into the channel when the plu nger is retracted, an apron connected to the plunger and sliding in said Ways, a spiral conveyer or conveyers situated in the bottom of the hopper whose shaft or shafts are journaled in the ends of the hopper for feeding fuel to the forward end thereof, a duplex engine for revolving the spiral con veyer, a revolving valve for controlling the admission and exhaust of steam to and from the cylinder of the main engine whose valve seat and case are formed integral with the rear head of the cylinder, and Whose valve-stem has a .cog-wheel secured upon it to mesh with a cog-wheel upon the shaft of the spiral conveyer whereby the valve is revolved to open and close the ports, and said cog-wheels, substantially as shown and described.

9. In a mechanical stoker the combination of a main engine whose piston is connected to a plunger for reciprocating it, a trough in which the plunger reciprocates leading from the cylinder of the main engine into a furnace, a valve for varying the amount of steam admitted to the rear end of the cylinder to advance the plunger at various speeds, a channel for conducting the steam into the rear end of the cylinder from the Valve, a chamber beneath the cylinder, a spring-pressed piston in the chamber, a piston-rod connected to the piston and projecting forward and being pivoted to a lever, a deliector pivoted to the furnace-door in front of the channel and secured to the lever, said lever, the spring within the chamber for drawing the pistonrod backward, and a pipe connecting the rear end of said chamberwith the channel for conveying steam into the chamber against the piston whereby the deflector is lowered in a degree proportioned to the rapidity of the forward stroke of the plunger, substantially as shown and described.

JOHN W. KINCAID.

Witnesses:

WALTER F. MURRAY, EMMA LYFoRD. 

